Terror organization: Al Qaeda;

Status: A key leader of Al-Qaeda (AQ). He is the longtime director of AQ’s media arm, al-Sahab, and is the son-in-law and senior advisor to AQ leader Ayman al-Zawahiri;

Role: Documents recovered during the 2011 military operation against former AQ leader Usama bin Ladin indicate al-Maghrebi has been a rising star in AQ for many years. Al-Maghrebi has served as AQ’s general manager in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 2012. Following years of international counterterrorism pressure, he relocated to Iran, where he has continued to oversee AQ activities worldwide. As head of AQ’s External Communications Office, al-Maghrebi coordinates activities with AQ affiliates.;

Location: Iran;

Known Also As: Mohamed Abbatay; Abd al-Rahman al-Maghrebi; Abdul Rahman al-Maghrebi; Muhammad Abaytah;

Country: Iran;

DOB: July 1, 1970;

Citizenship: Moroccan;

Place of birth: Marrakech, Morocco;

Activities:
Muhammad Abbatay, better known as Abd al-Rahman al-Maghrebi, is Moroccan national and U.S.-designated leader for al-Qaeda. Al-Maghrebi allegedly is an Iran-based key leader, and the longtime director of al-Sahab, al-Qaeda’s media arm.

The U.S. Treasury and U.S. Department of State designated al-Maghrebi as a Specially Designated National (SDN) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) on January 12, 2021.

The son-in-law of al-Qaeda co-founder, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Maghrebi allegedly left Morocco in 1996 to study software programming in Cologne, Germany.

A few years later, in 1999, al-Maghrebi left Germany for Afghanistan to train at the al-Faruq camp near Kandahar before being pulled from training by Khalid Sheikh Muhammad—the head of both al-Qaeda’s External Operations and Media Committee—and was reassigned to work for al-Qaeda’s Media Committee.

Given al-Maghrebi’s software expertise and computer skills, al-Maghrebi quickly became an asset for the group’s Media Committee and eventually took on the role as director of al-Sahab—al-Qaeda’s media arm. Allegedly, after the fall of Afghanistan in 2001, al-Maghrebi fled to Iran but reportedly relocated to Pakistan in 2003.

According to documents recovered from the 2011 military operation against Osama bin Laden, al-Maghrebi has been a rising star in al-Qaeda for many years.

In 2012, al-Maghrebi began serving as al-Qaeda’s general manager in Afghanistan and Pakistan, before relocating to Iran due to years of international counterterrorism pressure.

While in Iran, al-Maghrebi became head of al-Qaeda’s External Communications Office where he supervised and coordinated al-Qaeda’s and al-Qaeda’s activities worldwide.

On January 12, 2021, the U.S. Department of State designated al-Maghrebi as an SDGT. The same day, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanction-designated al-Maghrebi as an SDN.

Additionally, the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program announced a reward for up to $7 million for information regarding al-Maghrebi’s location.